Category Archives: News

Unilever Foundry and Padang & Co this week launched LEVEL3, a co-working space that pushes the boundaries of collaboration and corporate innovation. Redefining the traditional concept of workspaces, LEVEL3 brings together Unilever, startups, and entrepreneurs to encourage innovation and create new partnerships that deliver real and meaningful business impact.

“LEVEL3 stems from our mission to make sustainable living commonplace. It offers our business a direct connection with disruptive technologies and changemakers to shape the way we work – ultimately impacting people’s lives,” said Pier Luigi Sigismondi, President, South East Asia and Australasia. “LEVEL3 is the springboard for startups to scale and build successful businesses.”

Like this:

The UK recently kicked off its largest ever international trade and investment marketing campaign. Aimed at international businesses and governments the campaign plans to showcase the UK’s trade and investment opportunities to a global marketplace, including the EU and beyond.

The comprehensive, multi-channel campaign will display a series of new images showcasing the UK’s world-leading products and services, including advertising in international airport hubs such as Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Singapore; press publications; along with substantial digital promotion.

As part of this international push, the Department for International Trade is stepping up its efforts to help international companies looking to trade or invest in the UK to find the right opportunities for them.

A recently launched interactive digital service – www.great.gov.uk – will provide practical advice to UK businesses ready to take the next step into new global markets, or international buyers and sellers who want to know more about the UK market or how to buy British.

The digital service will also include information on seven sectors, from technology to food and drink, so that international businesses can easily navigate the UK market and make an informed decision about the best investment opportunities.

Jo Hawley, Director of International Trade and Investment at the British Consulate in Hong Kong added: “Hong Kong and UK trading links have gone from strength to strength over the last 20 years. In the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, we are working with record numbers of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors expanding their businesses into the UK as well as UK companies keen to do business in Hong Kong. We hope that our new campaign and digital hub will encourage even greater trading links.”

On this occasion it’s a discrepancy between the number of likes and shares Facebook shows for web links, and also issues with the number of likes and reaction emojis that page owners see for their live videos.

In the first case in September it was revealed that the social network had been inflating a key video viewing metric for years.

In the second case, there were multiple errors:

A bug in Page Insights with the weekly and monthly summaries miscalculating the total numbers without taking into consideration the repeat visitors. This brought a reduced reach of 33% for the 7-day summary and 55% for the 28-day summary. According to Facebook, this didn’t affect the paid reach.

A small miscalculation to the length of the videos, with a difference of one to two seconds in the final result, due to occasional problems of syncing the audio and the video to each device.

There was an over-reporting of 7-8% on the time spent on Instant Articles since last August. Facebook reported that this issue is now fixed.

The “Referrals” metrics on Facebook Analytics for Apps was also miscalculated, as it didn’t simply track the links to the app or the site, but also the clicks to the posts via the app or the site, which also included the clicks to view photos and videos.

Facebook should be given credit for being upfront about its mistakes and rectifying its errors. But the more measurement errors and corrections it discloses, the more difficult it becomes to trust Facebook’s measurements.

Like this:

Brands at the forefront of tech and media shine in the 2016 Asia’s Top 1000 Brands ranking. Number 1 position was taken by Samsung, with Apple and Sony in 2 and 3 respectively.

Samsung retained its top spot in terms of customer perception, despite a tough year which saw mobile phone sales squeezed by Android competitors. They released the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Note 5 in August 2015, beating new iPhones to the market by about a month. These models debuted after slow sales of the premium Galaxy S6 prompted price cuts and customer refunds. Samsung then wasted little time in launching the Galaxy S7 Edge in January 2016, largely to favourable reviews for its expandable storage, a dual-pixel camera, battery and always-on display.

Like this:

2015 was another exciting year for digital and programmatic in Asia, South East Asia especially.

There is a definite sense that individual markets are outgrowing Singapore as a regional hub – evidenced by rapidly increasing spends at individual market level, and a resurgence in agencies, both local and global, doing outstanding digital work in local markets.

In celebration of the year past, here are the top 5 Digital in Asia articles for 2015.

A report from market research company Epinion and OMD looking at Generation Z in Vietnam. Numbering 14 million, and with an average monthly disposable income of 112 USD – significant in this emerging market – these consumers are incredibly valuable for brands.

2015 promised to be an exciting year for Digital Marketing and Media in Asia. These were the ten trends that, in DIA’s view, would change online advertising over the last year. How many did we get right?! Don’t worry, we’ll be right back very soon with another 10 trends for 2016.

We talk to Matt Ware, Commercial Director APAC, at MediaMath about the three M’s – Mad Men, Math Men, and Maroon 5. Plus a little bit about programmatic.

DIA Hi Matt. How are you?

MW Hi Digital in Asia! Very well thanks.

DIA We’re big fans of Mad Men here at DIA. Can you explain how we got from the Mad Men era, to the Math Men era, and the key differences?

MW To the world’s first advertising agencies, the technology now available to help marketers would have seemed like something from a fantastical science fiction novel.

In reality, the latest technology is proving to be an essential business tool in delivering what has long been promised but never realised – true customer-centric marketing.

While these tools and new ways of working can seem complex and intimidating even to experienced agency hands and marketers, grasping the fundamentals and understanding how programmatic can help business is surprisingly simple.

DIA What are the most compelling benefits programmatic trading can offer advertisers?

MW The three key business advantages that programmatic can deliver are improved targeting, scale, and relevancy. Combining these elements with real-time decision-making across millions of ad-serving opportunities means a brand can lower its marketing costs while boosting its return on investment.

At the heart of the matter is data. Consumers are becoming more sophisticated in how they use devices – from desktops to tablets and mobiles – and when they want to research, review, and buy goods or services. Marketers can now access more data than ever before about this increasingly complicated consumer path to purchase.

DIA Tell us more about data driven advertising. We know that data is THE key component of marketing moving forward.

MW Data Driven Marketing and Advertising (DDMA) – a common acronym among agencies and networks – is powered by technology that analyses vast data sets and provides the algorithms that underpin programmatic buying. This approach to marketing strategy is attracting more and more investment.

According to research conducted among 3,000 marketing practitioners across 17 countries, almost two-thirds (63%) increased their investment in DDMA in 2014, and nearly three-quarters (73%) expect to increase their DDMA budget this year.

It is vital that companies invest in technology that can analyse their consumer data because without this information, their competitors will simply leave them behind. The technology enables data to be qualified and mined for insights that can help with audience segmentation and contextual targeting. Engaging ads can then be created to serve to potential customers. Finally, these ads must be tracked, measured, adjusted and tested again and again to achieve optimum performance.

DIA How can advertisers take their first steps into programmatic?

MW Many brands are now testing programmatic buying on small projects so they can learn more about the systems, before using the results to help convince the CEO or the board that more budget should be invested in automated trading. Some brands such as Mondelez and Procter & Gamble have already announced that a large chunk of media spend will now be traded programmatically.

DIA What does programmatic advertising mean for consumers?

MW Ultimately, programmatic trading allows clients to serve relevant advertising to the consumer via the appropriate channel or platform, and at the right time. It is customer-centric because it prevents the shopper from being bombarded with meaningless messages for products in which they have no interest. The idea is to create a truly personalised shopping experience.

The brand, client, and agency benefit from efficiencies of scale and accurate targeting, and there is less money wasted on trying to reach the potential consumer. A consumer who is happy with the messages he or she receives is more likely to buy the goods and services on offer. It’s a win-win all round.

2015 promises to be an exciting year for Digital Marketing and Media in Asia. The core metrics won’t feel that different from 2014, but there will be increased focus in a number of areas, alongside raised expectations as Asia expands and matures from a Digital perspective.